Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I will start, with your consent, by making a declaration that I am a member of Unison in case any of these matters touch on those issues. Can I say that I clearly will wish to recognise the hard work of everybody working in local government at all levels? Local authorities across Wales are responsible for services to some of our most vulnerable people as well as services that all of us rely upon and sometimes take for granted. We are all aware of the hard work that is undertaken throughout local government across the whole of the country. I think, Deputy Presiding Officer, that it is probably fair to say that most Members in this Chamber on all sides will also recognise that this is a Government that is committed to ensuring that the most vulnerable employees, the lowest paid employees, are always those where we seek to make the greatest focus.

Let me say this: we are focusing on senior pay today, but others are more concerned about a continued squeeze on pay for the majority of lower paid local authority workers, which is being driven by austerity. I want to recognise in this debate about rising salaries in local authorities that there remains a squeeze on local authority pay, on public sector pay more widely, which is being driven by the United Kingdom Government’s austerity policy and that affects lower earning workers the most.

The Welsh Government has done and will continue to do everything it can to protect the public services from the worst aspects of austerity, but our ability to do this has clearly been eroded by cuts to our own funding by the United Kingdom Government. And let me say this, Deputy Presiding Officer: it’s worth making the point now that, in the medium and longer term, for me as local government Minister, one of the most serious issues facing us is not simply excessive pay—although sometimes that can be an issue, I accept that—but the potential for very significant cuts in the future as a consequence of public spending reductions following the disastrous Brexit policy and the disastrous negotiations taking place, led by the United Kingdom Government.

We already know—we already know—that austerity has failed Wales. We already know that our own budget is substantially lower than it was in 2010—the equivalent of £800 million less to spend on public services in Wales every year—and there are no indications that the current Chancellor of the Exchequer is about to change course and end austerity economics. I think, Deputy Presiding Officer, that it’s fair to say that, across Wales, what people really want is a general election in order to remove the UK Government from power and put in place a Government that is committed to ensuring fairness for the many and not the few.

But let me also say this: this Government is not going to take lessons from a party that comes to this Chamber when it can be bothered in order to argue the case for deregulation, for lower wages, to take away workers’ rights and workers’ protections, to take away—